In real estate, you are your own brand. It pays to take some time to think consciously about what qualities you want people to associate with you and take steps to manage your personal brand. Managed well, that personal brand becomes a powerful asset in your efforts to win new listings and get repeat business from past customers. Managed poorly, it can become a drag on your business and force you to work harder than you need to or prevent you from succeeding in real estate altogether.

Brand, as it¹s used here, is not merely a name or identity. While the statement ³Starbucks is a brand of coffee² is true, brand is a much more powerful concept when thought of in more abstract terms. The most successful companies (Starbucks being a great example) invest significant amounts of money in managing the experience customers have when they interact with Starbucks in their stores, via advertisements, when buying online and when reading about Starbucks in the press.

Broadly defined, a brand is the collective qualities and experiences people associate with a given product or provider. As such, you never truly own your brand. You may own a name or a service mark associated with a brand, but the brand itself is located in the collective consciousness of customers, partners, providers and other people that interact with the brand. One way to think about it is that every time someone interacts with you ­ from the first time they receive a promotional mailing from you to the time you hand them their closing documents ­ they experience different emotions and reactions which they then associate with your personal brand.

While you can¹t control their perception, you can take reasonable steps to decide what you want to stand for and then manage your business to create and reinforce the associations that correspond to that identity.